Just hanging about ...

Younger son has been down for a week during college half term and with a quiet week on the work front it seemed an ideal opportunity to tackle the work I wanted to do up the masts

Our VHF reception and transmission range on the masthead antenna has been rubbish since day one and I'd laid in a new Metz Manta whip antenna to replace the existing rigid glass fibre job (not, in my 'umble, a great choice for a masthead antenna on a yacht anyway)

Mark made the first of our several ascents up the main mast using my climbing gear. In the process, we made some further improvements to the rig which is now working really well. The only problem, common to all means of getting up the mast, is that it's difficult to get high enough to work right at the top. Indeed, due to his size, Mark simply couldn't reach high enough to get to grips with the old antenna.

My gear consists of a full body harness (actually a fall arrest harness) to which is attached a bosun's chair. The climbing line runs through an ascender with foot loops to a descender attached to the harness and then to a block clipped onto the ascender.

To ascend, you push the ascender up whilst bending your knees then stand up in the foot loops whilst pulling down on the free end of the line which, with your weight off it, runs freely through the descender . Then you sit back and the descender locks and you repeat the process.

To descend, the ascender and block are removed from the line and stowed in the gear pockets on the chair and you then abseil down on the descender

I also insist on rigging a fall arrester on a totally seperate halyard to the back of the harness. That runs freely up and down the line unless you fall at which point it locks and stops you hitting the deck with potentially fatal consequences

It's not actually that hard work to ascend once you get the technique right and it's about the safest possible setup available

So then I had a go ...

... and I had just enough reach to manage. Annoyingly, as I began to remove the old antenna from the stand off bracket, I discovered that the aluminium bracket was splitting and would fail at some point in the not too distant future.

Then I found that it was impossible to remove the screws securing it to the top plate! The only option was to hacksaw it off as flush as possible with the plate (the remains will be removed at some future date when we have the mast down)

Matters then became frustrating as for several days it was too windy to drill the mounting holes. It wasn't too uncomfortable up there but the mast head was vibrating and moving around in the wind.

There were other things to be getting on with though.

As well as the new VHF antenna on the main mast, I wanted to fit an AIS antenna on the mizzen (which will also double as a backup VHF antenna if the main antenna fails).

I decided it would be easier to lower the mizzen mast down and work on it on deck than climb it. There aren't the array of lines to use for climbing and fall arrest gear etc. on the mizzen. With the main halyard connected to the mizzen halyard and the mizzen forward shrouds removed, it proved relatively easy to lower it to the deck and then move it forward to gain access to the mast head.

With the mast down on deck, fitting the new antenna bracket was an easy job. We also, of course, had to run a coax cable down the mast.

Whilst we had it down, the squeaky halyard sheaves were liberally lubricated and I fitted a block and mousing line for a mizzen staysail halyard. We don't have a mizzen staysail yet but I intend to acquire one when I can!

We also removed the Dolphin vertical wind turbine for refurbishment or, if it isn't restorable, disposal.

Pagan looked rather odd as a sloop but she was soon restore to her two masted glory!

Hoisting the mast back up proved quite easy using the main mast halyard winch.

The new RAM3 remote mic for the new VHF needed fitting to the mizzen mast binnacle too.

This will give the helmsman full access to the VHF functions.

At the nav table, the existing VHF needed moving and the new VHF installing. Then all the various cables needed running in and connecting up.

Finally, yesterday morning presented a still, calm, day and I was able to fit the new bracket and antenna to the head of the main mast.

And then it was time to play with the toys ...

The existing M-Tech VHF has been retained as a backup and gets it's position fix from the chart plotter. In due course, it will probably get a dedicated rail mount antenna and it can also be attached to either of the mast head antennas at need

The new Standard Horizon GX-2000 has been mounted at a slight angle to make it more easily usable from the navigators seat position. It gets its position fix from the AIS transceiver

Mounting plates to store the Tack-Tick instrument heads have beeen fitted above the switch panels (the instruments normally mount on the rail above the hatch)

The charging stand for the hand held VHF has been screwed down to the corner of the nav table and various things moved around to better positions.

There are further changes to be made in due course in this setup - the switch panels are slated for replacement and the autohelm is also going to be upgraded later this winter.

With everything connected up and configured, I carried out VSWR checks on both new antennas. The mizzen AIS antenna is giving a very good VSWR of 1.5:1 but the main antenna is rather high at 2.8:1

That is almost certainly due to the length of the cable run, and maybe some deterioration of the existing cables, and at some point I'll replace the below deck cable with RG213, At twice the thickness of RG58, running RG213 down the mast in-situ would be a bit of a challenge so that will probably wait until we need to have the mast down

Despite the high VSWR reading, we are now reaching the coastguard loud and clear from our home berth, which we were not achieving before, and reception is dramatically improved.

Our AIS reception, previously very poor, is now astonishing ...

We're seeing everything out to 20 to 30 miles away no problem at all and picking up some vessels from as far as 70 or 80 miles away! That's not without it's downsides though. The more vessels the AIS transceiver can "see", the fewer transmission time slots are available to it. On the other hand, our AIS transmission range is now dramatically improved which means we should be visible on the tracking websites much of the time instead of intermittently.

Whereas previously we were not showing up on the tracking websites from Fambridge at all, now we are (via a shore station in Maldon)

All in all, an ultimately successful week. We didn't get as much done as I'd hoped but that's the way of it when working on boats!

Mark has, he assures me, enjoyed his week aboard Pagan and plans are afoot for Mark and Heather to join us next year for part of the Sojourn to the Solent

Feeling hot, hot, hot

This past week has been a bit of a marathon challenge to get the new blown air heating system installed. It was always expected to be one of the major jobs and it didn't disapoint!

The biggest challenge was getting the 90mm ducting from the engine bay, where I originally planned to install the heater, to the forecabin, heads and main wardrobe (which we'd casually assumed we'd use as a drying locker)

I rapidly realised my original plan of routing the ducting through the galley was a total non-starter. There just wasn't the space to work in even if there was actually the room for the ducting, which I had my doubts about.

After some scratching of the bonce I realised that it would be far easier to route the ducting under the nav table and into the port side settee lockers. Happily, I also discovered that there was just space to route the ducting underneath the GRP shower tray and toilet plinth.

Two further changes to the original plan ensued. The first was the decision to mount the heater in the port cockpit locker. This avoided all sorts of complications with the exhaust, fresh air intake etc.

The second was to scrap the vent in the wardrobe. This decision was taken psrtly on the grounds that once we'd acquired our lovely new foulies and hung them in the wardrobe along with our going ashore coats we found that everything was jammed in fairly snugly. Wet gear would not have dried out properly like that and indeed would have made any adjacent dry gear damp. It also avoided the neccessity of getting the ducting from port to starboard which was not going to be easy

The heater unit has been temporarily mounted on the cockpit coaming.

In due course, when the locker is fitted out with shelving and what have you, the heater will be moved to a more protected position a little lower down and further outboard.

For now, we'll have to be careful not to bash it with gear


The next major challenge was creating an access from the forward end of the port settee locker into the void beneath the toilet plinth. This was rather too close to the hull for comfort using a 120mm hole saw! (The hole needed to be over-size to accomodate the lagging)

So out came the reciprocating plunge saw. As pictured, I made a cautious start cutting a much smaller hole than I'd need so that I could then assess the position of the hull and the plinth.

It took a whole day to cut the required hole, feed the duct through into the cupboard beneath the heads sink and finally to cut holes through the locker dividers, end and the bulkhead between the saloon and the cockpit locker

It proved easier to remove the screwed down settee bases rather than work through the locker access hatches


I was very pleased to complete this part of the job indeed. How to run the ducting through the saloon had been a nagging worry for some considerable time.

We'll probably have to relocate the No.1 Beer Hold (on the left in the photo) though as even with the lagging the heating duct is likely to warm the locker up. And warm beer is simply not to be contemplated


Then it was time to start fitting the vents

The forecabin and heads vents were relatively easy to install

The only problem with these vents is that they are actually very close together in the cupboard under the sink (on the other side of the bulkhead in the pic) which made the pipework a wee bit tricky to get into place.

The end result was very satisfactory other than that I wished I'd ordered a white vent rather than a black one!

The saloon vent was more of a challenge. This involved routing a duct from the cockpit locker into the engine bay and then forwards to the gap between the navigators seat and the steps.

There was only just enough clearance between the engine water pump and the back of the removable panel but that wasn't the only problem!

I had to move the steps an inch to starboard, slightly offsetting them, in order to make enough space. I then had to cut the corner out of the removable access panel and screw it permanently to the engine bay surround before cutting the hole for the vent.

The duct from this vent goes to a T-piece in the engine bay, the other side of which enters the cockpit locker at the aft end. That branch then divides into a 90mm duct into the aft cabin and a 60mm duct to a vent by the helmsman's feet (no more shall I freeze on a cold night's sail!)

The feed to the engine bay "T" and the duct underneath the nav table meet at a "Y" fitting and thence back to the heater at last.

With interruptions to do things for customers etc., getting the ducting and vents installed took a whole five days to complete. Without interruptions, it would have taken at least three days.

"All" that remained to do was to install the fuel feed and fuel pump, fit the control unit by the switch panels and run the wiring harness to the controller and the batteries! That took another day and a bit

With everything connected up by early this afternoon I was delighted when it fired up. I was less delighted when it shut down again. This process went on, with an error indication of fuel feed problems, until the unit locked out and had to be reset.

After a fair amount of fiddling about, I discovered that one of the short lengths of rubber hose supplied with the kit had a partial blockage which was starving the heater of fuel. With the culprit swapped for a different bit of hose (they supply more than you need) all was well.

I opened a bottle of Doombar and put a beef curry on the stove to celebrate. Very nice too.

The heater works extremely well I must say! There is, as you'd expect, a certain amount of noise from the vents. In "Eco" mode it's considerably quieter than a fan heater although the noise becomes more intrusive in "Normal" and definitely would be annoying for long periods in "High" (or whatever it's called). But once the boat is warm, "Eco" mode seems quite adequate to keep it that way.

The fuel pump ticking is audible in the cabin once the ambient noise level has dropped at night. It will get gagged! What is most impressive compared to most blown air heating systems is that, again in "Eco" mode (I haven't stepped ashore with it on the higher settings) the heater is completely inaudible from the outside.

There's some final tidying up and making fast of ducting and cabling to do on the morrow, along with a major tidy up of the boat interior and cockpit! That aside, it's one of the biggest jobs on the "to do" list done!

Tanking it, ticking over, expanding the fleet and thinking ahead ...

Quite a long title, quite a lot of ground to cover tonight!

Top of the extensive winter "to do" list is replacing the main water tank. So my first mission was extracting the damn thing from under the v-berth.

This proved less difficult than I feared, with some assistance from Patrick ("Orca") without which I'd have definitely struggled.

Once the tank was out I was able to closely examine it and our decision to replace it with a new plastic tank was vindicated

The quality of construction is poor, the steel is to my mind too thin and the welds have clearly been re-welded in several places

There's very obvious signs of where the tank has been leaking in three places, all of them previous repairs.

Even repaired again, this tank is just going to be trouble and we'd rather get it sorted properly once and for all

So my next mission was to design the new tank. I could have simply recycled the dimensions of the existing tank but I'd found that it was significantly smaller than the available space. In fact, I calculated that by simply making the tank the same shape but to fit the space I could gain oer 5 gallons capacity. That may not sound much when you're used to having unlimited water on tap but it's worth between three days and a week longer between visits to a hose pipe.

I could, in fact, have gained perhaps a further five or six gallons by making the shape more complex but the trade off would have been increased cost.

So here is the final design. I've had, perforce, to retain the fittings in the end walls rather than the top face, which would be preferable, as reducing the height of the tank by the four inches necessary to install the fittings on top would have reduced the capacity substantially.

Tek Tanks responded with a quote within two hours, I'm waiting for Henderson Plastics to respond.

So I can't continue tanking it until that quote comes in.

So I throttled back to tickover...

Pagan has been squatting on the river pontoon since we got back from the Blackwater and this weekend the tides would be right to finally get back on our berth.

The Friday tide of 5.1m should have been just about enough but with a high pressure weather system and who knows what other factors, it came up short by nearly 0.2m as I found when I checked the depth at high water with the lead line. Added to which, we once again had a fairly stiff Easterly breeze.

Saturday, however, looked perfect. A 5.4m tide and a moderate Southerly breeze should serve nicely.

Since high water wasn't until late morning, I decided to tackle the excessively fast tickover problem. Since we repitched the prop this has become even more of a nuisance with Pagan making over 3 knots at tickover! That makes slow speed maneouvering a wee bit tricky to say the least!

Adjusting the throttle stop and sorting out the morse control cable mounting combined to get the old Merc rumbling at a sedentary 600rpm

The good ship Laurin arrived shortly after I'd finished and I had ample hands on deck and on the shore to assist with docking. Pagan was behaving herself particularly well and with good slow speed control now available we gently eased into our berth without any drama at all.

The Laurins then cooked brunch aboard Pagan as their cooker is playing up. They came back and cooked tea later that day and then back again this morning to cook breakfast! I'm not complaining!

This morning we need to "car" shuffle to pick up the Laurin's Landie from Burnham and whilst we were at it we picked up the new addition to our fleet ...

Whilst we were round at Marconi the conversation had turned to my search for a cheap sailing dinghy to use as a knockabout on the river. Our friends Neal and Jocelyn offered us their Super Graduate dinghy on launching trolley and road trailer for the princely sum of £0! She's not been getting used and she was sitting slightly forlornly in the dinghy park at Burnham Sailing Club

So we hitched her up behind the Landrover and fetched her back to Fambridge. I set about her with the pressure washer and she scrubbed up rather nicely. She shows the scars of a long life but she's serviceable and just what I wanted.

Mind you, I might have to fight people off with a big stick to sail her myself, there's a growing list of people who want to borrow her! That's fine by me

She'll get a name in due course when I decide what to call her. Something with a pagan-esque feel to it methinks

And that brings us, finally, to thinking ahead

Jane had to get her holiday bookings in sharpish for next year so we already know when our main trips will be. Back end of May into early June we'll have 12 days pottering around the Thames Estuary, our goal being to get to grips with sailing Pagan as a couple

Then mid July to early August will be, if plans come to pass, a big trip. A whole 25 days away on a sojourn to the Solent. I've been there before of course, but only as far as Chichester Harbour on a cruise and twice on a mission to bring boats back from Port Solent and the Hamble.

With crew provisionally pencilled in for the out (Glen) and return (Rik) legs, Jane will join ship for the middle two thirds of the trip. I'm hoping to get into Rye for a couple of days, spend some time in Chichester harbour exploring, make landfall on the Isle of Wight once or twice, maybe make it as far as Poole to pick Rik up and a visit to Portsmouth mainly 'cos I want to go and see the Mary Rose

Then at the beginning of September we've got another 12 day break. No firm plans for that yet but there's a possibilty we might fly out to Italy to join the crew of the good ship Laurin for a week or so. If that doesn't come to pass, we'll do something else!

Our first (mini) cruise

 Apologies, dear reader, for the tardiness in updating the blog this trip. I just never seemed to have the time while we were away. So here's the rest of the trip summed up in one post

Saturday

Following our Friday blast to Bradwell, we had a relaxing start to Saturday as we only needed to head 45 minutes upriver to Marconi Sailing Club where we picked up a buoy.

We were joining with several friends from the East Coast Forum for an afternoon of man overboard recovery practice followed by an evening BBQ. For Jane and I it was also pick up a mooring with Pagan practice (first time, fairly successful) and dinghy ashore for the evening and return in the dark practice (first time, also successful)

How many people can you get in a liferaft?

The MoB recovery session was interesting, illuminating and good fun (even the volunteer men and women overboard seemed to enjoy it) and worthy of a separate write up which it shall receive in due course. The evening BBQ and beer was equally enjoyable in the company of good friends old and new. I was forced on pain of pain to get the travel guitar out too and entertained the company with a few songs which seemed to go down well (well, they didn't ALL leave the room!)

The dinghy ride back to the boat was uneventful although we were both glad of our new foulies which are simply superb at keeping the wet where it belongs, on the outside. I made a further excursion to check that one of the other boat's crew had made it back again when I got a call to say their outboard had failed and they were rowing back. As the tide was making quite hard I wanted to be sure they were OK which they were.

Apparently, there were some sleepless nights aboard other boats as it was slightly choppy in the Blackwater but aboard Pagan we slept like logs.

Sunday

We awoke on Sunday to a pleasant but windy autumn day. I'd not been long awake when the phone rang and I remembered with a sinking heart that I'd promised to do a crew swap by dinghy for SV Laurin. Frankly, I really didn't fancy it at all and I was mightily relived to hear that firstly lines had been crossed and it was Roger on Sabre who was supposed to be doing the dinghy work and that Karen and Lisa had decided that conditions were really not suitable and that they'd run down to Bradwell and do the crew swap there

After a light breakfast I made a call to the lock keeper at Heybridge Basin. Happily, they could accommodate us overnight and gave us a lock in time nigh on an hour earlier than I'd expected

That turned out to be a good thing because as the morning wore on it got choppier and choppier and by the time it was time to drop the mooring both Jane and I were starting to feel a little queasy. There was to be no pretence of going sailing today, it was a 45 minute run upriver again and done under motor.

Locking in went OK and we were soon alongside in a handy spot above the lock. We'd have been in the lock for the night but for the fact that they needed to drain it at low water in the morning. A pint ashore at the Ship was followed by a meal aboard before we wandered down to the Jolly Sailor for a couple of drinks in the evening.

My occasional stomach problems struck with a vengeance when we got back aboard and rather spoilt an otherwise pleasant evening. I'd made the mistake, yet again, of succumbing to the temptation of mopping up my lunchtime soup with a couple of slices of bread and I really ought to know better.

Usually, it just results in stomach cramps which clear after a few hours but on this occasion I was properly ill until the early hours of the morning. Hey ho, the problem is responding gradually to my much improved diet and I've just got to avoid temptation in future!

Monday

Yet another leisurely start as we would not be locking out until early afternoon. We needed essential supplies as whilst the No.1 Beer Hold, the Wine Store and the Spirit Locker were holding up well and the Galley Stores would feed us for a couple of months at least, the vital tobacco supply, without a daily ration of which the crew would be sure to mutiny (and the skipper too) was dangerously low.

A pleasant walk up the canal to the shops about a mile away procured an ample supply of this essential ingredient for a happy and contented Pagan crew

We then perused and pondered the weather forecasts with much discussion about what to do. The forecast for Tuesday looked fairly brisk wind wise. Some way short of "no go" territory but rather more than we'd ideally like. We therefore pondered on the possibility of heading straight round into the Crouch from Heybridge.

However, with an afternoon lock out, it would be an arrival in the dark at Burnham (we didn't fancy anchoring in the Brankfleet given the forecast and our ancient ground tackle) and we didn't much fancy that either. Not that we're bothered by night sailing, it was more that we didn't fancy the trip

So we stuck to our plan of bimbling down to the Pyefleet and picking up a buoy for the night. We made a bit of a hash of the first attempt at picking up the buoy but got it on the second attempt. Of course, we had an audience!

It was a glorious evening in one of those special places ....

 
 Tuesday

 We awoke to a not unpleasant morning and soon sorted ourselves out to get underway.

Motoring out of the Pyfleet dead into the wind we made all plain sail, an evolution we're still getting the hang of, and set off down the Colne at a fair old lick.

The wind was supposed to be a Northerly veering Easterly later. It had veered early and was bang on the nose when we cleared the Colne Bar and wanted to shape up for the Spitway. It was also unpleasantly lumpy in the outer Blackwater, not an unusual circumstance.

I was also having trouble getting the sails set to my satisfaction, frustrating because she'd sailed so well on Friday. So we rolled away the genoa, pinned in the main and mizzen, and motored up to the Wallet Spitway buoy.

We crossed the Spitway with a wary eye on the depth, which happily never dropped below 1.2m below the keel, and then it was off with the motor as we turned downwind long the Swallowtail channel.

I found to my delight that Pagan sailed along very easily under main and mizzen alone and in 16 to 20 knots of breeze was making more than adequate progress. So adequate in fact that the genoa stayed furled all the way upriver to Fambridge where we arrived alongside several hours before high water.

Our one remaining concern now was getting Pagan back into her berth at or shortly after high water. With a strong Easterly blowing upriver it would be far from easy and I arranged for some help ashore with the lads in the yard.

Steve duly came round at the appointed hour and took one look at the situation and didn't like it at all. That triggered one of my personal alarms - when someone doesn't like something you're proposing, the wise skipper stops and reconsiders. I duly reconsidered and (given that the wind would not moderate for several days) Pagan will be taking up temporary residence on the river pontoon until the next spring tides!

Jane and I dined ashore at the Ferry Boat to celebrate the end of our first trip out and about on Pagan.

I'll write about our conclusions in a separate post later